Uddhav Thackeray, chief of his faction of the Shiv Sena, refrained from commenting on Sharad Pawar’s decision to step down as president of the Nationalist Congress Party, but said that he did not think “anything would happen within the NCP that would rock” the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
“Every party president has a right to decide on changing structures in his party. I will only speak once their internal issue [the question of appointing a new president] has been resolved. I do not think anything will take place within the NCP that will weaken the MVA alliance,” Mr. Thackeray said, speaking to reporters at the Sena Bhavan in Mumbai on May 4.
Unflattering
Mr. Pawar, who created ripples when he announced his decision on Tuesday during the launch of the updated edition of his political memoirs Lok Mazhe Sangati (roughly translated as The People in my Company), has criticized Mr. Thackeray’s lack of political nous in the book.
His opinions, casting Mr. Thackeray in an unflattering light, have put the Sena (UBT) chief and his confidante Sanjay Raut in a spot.
In his book, Mr. Pawar has reportedly expressed his displeasure about Mr. Thackeray visiting the Mantralaya, as Maharashtra’s State Secretariat is called, only twice during his stint as Chief Minister of the erstwhile MVA government.
Also read: Sharad Pawar’s decision to step down sends shockwaves through MVA
Conspiracy theory quashed
Mr. Pawar has pointedly quashed one of Mr. Thackeray’s and Mr. Raut’s pet peeves against the BJP at the Centre, that the latter were reportedly ‘conspiring’ to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra.
“I can say with full responsibly that no party leader in Delhi wants to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra. There should be a full-stop on this matter,” Mr. Pawar has said in his autobiography, in a thinly-veiled jibe at Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Raut.
Downplaying the NCP patriarch’s remarks against him, Mr. Thackeray said: “Everyone has a right to write whatever they wish in their autobiography… It will not be proper to comment on it at this stage. I will only say I am firm in my views and will keep putting them forward. I can only say that I will do nothing that may affect the MVA alliance in any way.”
Mr. Raut, who is known as the bridge between the Sena (UBT) and the NCP, had earlier said that Mr. Thackeray would respond to Mr. Pawar’s criticism through a full-length interview in the Sena (UBT)’s mouthpiece Saamana which would be published soon.
Family politics
Meanwhile, an edit in Thursday’s Saamana — where Mr. Raut is executive editor — praised Mr. Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule for her work as a parliamentarian, while stating that her cousin Ajit Pawar’s ultimate aim in politics was “only to become the CM of Maharashtra.”
The edit further questioned whether the senior Mr. Pawar’s resignation as party national president was prompted by his awareness that his nephew Mr. Ajit Pawar was planning to join the BJP along with a section of NCP leaders.
